It took a while for punk to go from squats and bedsits to recording studios – so much so that with no punk records available Don Letts, the resident DJ at Covent Garden's Roxy Club, would famously play his favourite reggae tracks instead – turning spikey haired white kids onto the Jamaican sounds that had already inspired the likes of The Clash.
But when the new bands started recording the results were explosive. While some classic punk tracks were only released as singles – The Clash's 1977, Buzzcocks' Orgasm Addict and Siouxsie and the Banshees' Hong Kong Garden – these albums still reinvented the musical landscape. By Patrick Sawer.